HIGH DESERT SOUNDINGS Fundraising Party: A joyous preview of experimental excellence
As the brutal heat waves come and go and we find ourselves in autumn once more, High Desert Soundings showcased their prowess as a new music powerhouse with a deeply engaging fundraising party ahead of their 6th festival season on the weekend of October 11th. Featuring a myriad of influential artists they’ve worked with in the past, downtown attendees were also treated to your local musicians’ favorite lagers from Solarc Brewing. This event was hosted generously by Oracle Egg, but they furthered their contributions by performing an intimate and ethereal improvisation on an impressive prepared harp and piano installation fitted to their own studio. Perhaps the most surprising set of the night was a rare solo acoustic set from saxophone wizard Patrick Shiroishi. New band in town Serpentine Transmission closed the night perfectly with a deeply engaging ambient metal drone set titled “wad of clay”.
This year’s innovative programming is surely not one to be missed – High Desert Soundings is taking on the diversity and breadth of our shared understanding of new music by experimenting with a committee-model for critiquing and selecting festival submissions. In an attempt to even the field for artists who do not come from academic or contemporary classical backgrounds, they have brought on three past performers who have continued to share in and uplift the ethos of the forward-thinking organization. In addition to co-directors TJ Borden and Ethan Marks, this year’s committee also includes drone god and guitar fiend (among many other things) Nicholas Deyoe, transdiscplinary electronic artist and curator Haydeé Jimenez, and EMS Records leader and noise master Vern Avola. With close to 30 must-see artists and groups on the bill, sounds ranging from metal, noise, free jazz, new classical, all the way to hyperpop, one can certainly expect High Desert Soundings to continue to liven the starry skies of Twentynine Palms this October with joy, community, and sustained experimental excellence.